INJIL انجيل
Evangel. Injil is used in the Qur’an, and in the Traditions, and in all Muslim theological works of an early date, for the revelations made by God to Jesus. But in recent works it is applied by Muslims to the New Testament. The word occurs twelve times in the Qur’an, as in the following Surahs, which we have arranged chronologically, and not as they occur in the Qur’an. (It will be seen that the expression Injil is not mentioned in the earlier Surahs in article QUR’AN.)
Surah vii. 156: “Who follow the Apostle – the illiterate Prophet, whom they find written down with them in the Law (Taurat) and the Gospel (Injil).”
Surah iii. 2: “He has sent thee a book (i.e. the Qur’an) confirming what was before it, and has revealed the Law, and the Gospel before, for the guidance of men.”
Surah iii. 43 “He will teach him the Book and Wisdom, and the Law and the Gospel.”
Surah iii. 58: “Why do ye dispute about Abraham, when the Law and the Gospel were not revealed until after him.”
Surah lvii. 27: “We gave him (Jesus) the Gospel, and we placed in the hearts of those who followed him kindness and compassion.”
Surah xlviii. 29: “Their marks are in their faces from the effects of adoration: that is their similitude in the Law, and their similitude in the Gospel.”
Surah ix. 112: “Promised in truth in the Law, in the Gospel, and in the Qur’an.”
Surah v. 50: “We brought him (Jesus) the Gospel.”
Surah v. 51: “Then let the people of the Gospel judge by what is revealed therein.”
Surah v. 70: “And were they steadfast in the Law and in the Gospel?”
Surah v. 72: “Ye rest on nought until ye stand fast by the Law and the Gospel and what is revealed to you from your Lord.”
Surah v. 110: “When I taught thee the Book, and Wisdom, and the Law, and the Gospel.”
There are also allusions to the Christian Scriptures in the following verses:-
Surah xix. 31. (The infant Jesus said,) “Verily, I am the servant of God: He hath given me the book, and He hath made me a prophet.”
Muhammad was much more indebted to Judaism than Christianity for the teaching he received, which enabled him to overthrow Arabian idolatry and to establish the worship of the One True God [CHRISTIANITY, JUDAISM], and consequently we find more frequent allusions to the Law of Moses than to the Gospel of Christ; and, as it has been already stated, the references to the Gospel as a revaltior are in the later Surahs. But in all references to the Injil as an inspired record, there is not one single statement to the effect that the Christians of Muhammad’s day did not possess the genuine Scriptures. In Surah iv. 169, (which is an al0Madinah Surah), the Christians are charged with extravagance, or error in doctrine, but not with not possessing the true Gospels:-
“Ye people of the Book! Commit no extravagance in your religion; and say not of God other than the truth. For verily the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, is an apostle of God, and His word which He placed in Mary, and a spirit from Him. Wherefore, believe in God, and in His apostle; and say not, – ‘the Trinity’; – refrain; it will be better for you. For verily God is one God; far exalted is He above the possibility that there should be unto Him progeny! To Him belongeth whatever is in the heavens and in the earth, and He sufficeth as a guardian.”
In Surah lxi. 6, there is an appeal to the Gospel in support of Muhammad’s mission, and the appeal is made without any doubt that he has referring to a genuine saying of Christ, well known to the Christians of that day. The verse is as follows:-
“When Jesus, the son of Mary, said: ‘O children of Israel! Verily, I am the apostle of God to you, verifying the law that was before me, and giving you glad tidings of an apostle who shall come after me, whose name shall be Ahmed!’ But when he did come to them with manifest signs, they said, This is manifest sorcery!”
The allusion is to the promise of the Paraclete in John xvi. 7, the Muslims declaring that the word has been substituted for the Greek , the word Ahmad, which is equivalent to Muhammad, meaning “Praised.” The charge which modern Muslims bring against the Christians of having either lost, or changed the original Scriptures, is treated under the head of CORRUPTION OF THE SCRIPTURES; but some curious statements on the subject will be found in an article in the Kashfu ‘z-Zunun. It is a Bibliographical Dictionary, compiled by Hajji Khalifah about 200 years ago. The statements in its article on INJIL are such a strange mixture of fact and fiction that we translate the article from the Arabic in extensor: –
“The Injil is a book which God revealed to ‘Isa ibn Maryam. In the work entitled al-Muwahib (by Shihabu ‘d-Din Ahmad al-Qastalani, died A.H. 923), it is recorded that the Injil was first revealed in the Syriac tongue, and has since been translated into seventeen languages. But in the Sahuhu ‘l-Bukhari (A.H. 256), in the story of Waraqah ibn Naufal, it is related that the Injil was revealed in Hebrew. According to Wahb ibn Munabbih, as quoted by Zamakhshari (A.H. 538) in the Kashshaf, the Injil was revealed to Jesus on the 13th day of the month of Ramazan, although some say it was on the 18th day of that month 1200 years after the revelation of the Zabur (Psalms) to Moses.”
“It is a disputed question whether or not the Injil abrogates the Law of Moses (Taurat). Some say that Jesus was not a Sahibu ‘sh-Shari’ah (a law-giver); for it is said in the Injil: –
‘I am not come to abrogate (tabdil) the Law of Moses, but to fulfil it (takmil).’
“But al Baizawi (A.H. 685), in his commentary the Anwaru ‘t-Tanzil, seems to prove that the Law of Jesus does abrogate the Law of Moses Shar’u Musa), for there are certain things revealed to Jesus which were not revealed to Moses.”
“At the commencement of the Injil is inscribed باسم الاب و الابن الحم, ‘In the name of the Father and of the Son.’ &c. And the Injil, which is now in the hands of the Christians, is merely a history of the Christ (Siratu ‘l-Masih), collected by his four companions Matta, Luqa, Marqus and Yuhanna.”
“In the book entitled the Tuhfatu ‘l-Adib fi Baddi ‘ala Ahli ‘s-Salib, or ‘A refutation of the servants of the Cross’ (written by ‘Abdu’llah, a pervert from Christianity to Islam, A.H. 823), it is said that these four Companions are they who corrupted the religion of Jesus, and have added to it. And that they were not of the Hawariyun, or Apostles, mentioned in the Qur’an. Matta did not see Jesus until the year he was taken up to heaven; and after the Ascension of Jesus he wrote in the city of Alexandria, with his own hand, his Injil, in which he gives an account of the birth and life of Jesus, mentioning several circumstances which are not mentioned by others. Luga also did not see Jesus, but he was converted to Christianity by one Bulis (Paul), who was an Israelite, who himself had not seen Jesus, but was converted by Ananiya (Anamas). Marqus also did not see Jesus at all, but was converted to Christianity after the Ascension of Jesus by the Apostle Bitru, and received the Injil (Gospel) from that Apostle in the city of Rome. And his Gospel in many respects contradicts the statements of the other three. Yuhanna was the son of the sister of Maryam, the mother of Jesus, and the Christians assert that Jesus was present at the marriage of Yuhanna, when Jesus changed the water into wine. It was the first miracle performed by Jesus.”
“When Yuhanna saw the miracle, he was converted to Christianity, and left his wife and followed Jesus. He was the writer of the fourth Injil (Gospel). It was written in Greek, in the city of Ephesus. These are the four persons who altered and changes the true Injil, for there was only one Injil revealed to Jesus, in which there was no contradiction or discrepancy. These people have invented lies concerning God and His Prophet Jesus, upon who be peace, as it is a well known fact, although the Christians (Nasara) deny it. For example, Marqus has written in the first chapter of his Gospel that in the book of the Prophet Isaiah it is said by God, ‘I have sent an angel before thy face, namely, before the face of Jesus whereas the words are not in the book of Isaiah but in that of Malachi.” [See mark i. 2. In the Received Version the words are “in the Prophets”; but in the Revised Version we have “in Isaiah the prophet.”]
“Again, it is related by Matta, in the first or rather thirteenth chapter of his Gospel [sic; see, however, Matt. xii. 40], that Jesus said, ‘My body will remain in the belly of the earth three days and three nights after my death, just as Jonas was in the whale’s belly;’ and it is evident it was not true, for Matta agrees with the three other writers of the Gospels that Jesus died in the sixth hour on Friday, and was buried in the first hour of the night on Saturday and rose from the dead early on Sunday morning, so that he remained in the belly of the earth one day and two nights. So there remains no doubt that the writers of the Gospels told the un-truth. For neither Jesus said of himself nor did God in his Injil say of him, that Jesus will be killed or buried in the earth, for God has said (i.e. in the Qur’an, Surah iv. 156), They slew him not, for certain! Nay, God raised him up unto Himself.’ For this cause there were various divisions amongst the Christians. Other circumstances similar to these are mentioned in the Tuhfatu ‘l-Adib. Then there are the fundamental rules and doctrines (al-Qawa’id), upon which the Christians are, with very few exceptions, universally agreed, namely: (1) At-Tughti (Baptism); (2) Faith in the Taslis, or Trinity; (3) the Incarnation of the Uqnum (i.e. the essence) of the Son in the womb of Mary; (4) a belief in the Fitrah (i.e. the Holy Communion); (5) the Confession of all sins to the Priest Qis’is). These five foundations also are full of falsehood, corruption, and ignorance.”
“In the work entitled al-Insanu ‘l-Kamil (written by the Shaikh Abdu ‘l-Karim ibn Ibrahim al-Jili, lived A.H. 767-811) it is said that when the Christians found that there was at the commencement of the Injil the superscription باسم الاب و الابنi.e. ‘in the name of the Father and Son,’ they took the words in their natural meaning, and [thinking it ought to be ab, father, Umm, mother, and Ibn, son] understood by Ab, the Spirit, by Umm, Mary, and by Ibn, Jesus; and on this account they said, Salisu Salasatin, i.e. ‘(God is) the third of three.’ (Surah v. 77.) But they did not understand that by Ab is meant God Most High, by Umm, the Mahiyatu ‘l-Haqa’iq, or ‘Essence of Truth’ Quidditas veritatum), and by Ibn, the Book of God, which is called the Wujudu ‘l-Mutlaq, or ‘Absolute Existence,’ being an emanation of the Essence of Truth, as it is implied in the words of the Qur’an, Surah xiii. 9: ‘And with his is the Ummu ‘l-Kitab, or the Mother of the Book.'”